


crayons

by starlightkun



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Meet-Cute, i am qian kuns whore, i repeat: QIAN KUN WITH CHILDREN, preschool teacher kun, qian kun with children, reaffirming my status as number one qian kun simp, so soft and fluffy adn domestic, ugh i love that domestic shit tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26906206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightkun/pseuds/starlightkun
Summary: in which you pick up your niece from school and her teacher is really cute
Relationships: Qian Kun/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 58





	crayons

“Y/N,” your older brother said as soon as you answered the phone, his voice already pleading, and you knew what was coming.

“John, no,” you said sternly as you continued walking away from your campus and towards your apartment building a few streets away.

“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask!”

“The last time you asked me to go pick up Yuta and Taeil from a bar because they were too drunk to drive themselves home.”

“I can’t bring Mei to a sleazy bar to pick them up,” Johnny said in his defense, to which you only scoffed.

“Then maybe you should get friends who don’t need to be picked up from sleazy bars.”

“Anyway, I’m not asking you to pick them up from a sleazy bar—”

“Is it a strip club this time?”

“Y/N,” he sounded absolutely exasperated, and you bit your tongue to hear him out.

Johnny had just gotten joint-custody of his two-year-old daughter Mei a couple months ago. The mother was some girl he’d gotten knocked up in an inebriated state at a party, and she decided to keep the baby. You had never met your niece’s mother and had met your niece only a handful of times, as prior to a few months ago John had limited visiting privileges. Your brother worked hard to get joint-custody, but he still hadn’t quite adjusted his lifestyle to fully accommodate her yet. Knowing that he needed to clean up his act fast to provide the best he possibly could for Mei, you were often hard on him. Sometimes too hard, you may admit.

“Sorry, John,” you mumbled, encouraging him to continue.

“I need you to pick Mei up from preschool today.”

“Can’t Yeohwa get her?”

“Mei’s mother works nightshifts when she’s with me.”

“What time?”

“Four.”

“Where is it?”

“By the corner of West Park and Young.”

You sighed shortly, checking the time now. That would give you a little less than an hour, barely enough time to get home and get some food before you would have to head out. Hurrying across a crosswalk, you agreed, “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Thank you so much!” He was absolutely relieved, tone turning bright again, “You’re the best aunt ever.”

“You have pretty low standards, dude. So am I taking her to your place or Mom and Dad’s?”

“I was actually kind of hoping you could watch her for a bit,” Johnny must have sensed the groan forming on your lips already and added, “I’ll pay you!”

It wasn’t that you didn’t like your niece, she was freaking cute and easy to take care of as she didn’t do too much yet. But you had stuff to do: homework, your internship, friends. You didn’t want your brother to be able to invade your life as well as his because of this. You decided to concede _this_ time, hearing how panicked Johnny was.

“I don’t need to be paid to watch my own niece,” you shook your head even though he couldn’t see it. “And the people there will know who I am, right? So they don’t think I’m trying to kidnap her?”

“Oh, I’ll call right now! Thanks again, Y/N.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“One more thing.”

“Hm?”

“Love you.”

You rolled your eyes, “Love you too, Johnny.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

Having hung up the phone, you continued your journey home with a greater speed, wanting to maximize your time before picking Mei up.

* * *

As you approached the colorful building labelled ‘Little Minds Preschool’ on the outskirts of the town center, you double-checked the time, groaning when you saw that you were a few minutes late. First, you’d _somehow_ managed to burn the mac and cheese you were making for yourself and Mei when you brought her to your apartment, then managed to hit the wrong timing on every crosswalk signal on your way here. Bursting through the front door, you were met by a somewhat startled secretary, who you nodded to apologetically.

Before you could approach her and explain why you were there, a door opened in the corner of your eye, catching your attention. A man had exited a nearby classroom, a smile so bright across his handsome face that you almost didn’t process the fact that he was holding your sleepy niece in his arms.

“You’re Seo Y/N, right? Picking up Mei?” He asked you, eyebrows quirking up along with his question.

Once you’d gotten yourself to stop drooling over the man whose face you were pretty sure had been sculpted by the gods or something, you hastily went to agree, holding your hands out to accept her, “Yeah, I am. I’m sorry I’m late.”

He deposited Mei into your arms, “You weren’t that late, it’s really not a problem.”

“Did you have a good day at school, Mei?” You questioned as you pinched her nose, earning a delighted giggle and nod from her before you addressed the man again, “Well, thank you anyway.”

“I’m Qian Kun, by the way, Mei’s teacher,” he offered his name out to you, and you were happy to have the conversation continue, finding yourself reluctant to leave the preschool now.

“Nice to meet you, Kun.”

“I have to say, she really does look a lot like you.”

“Really?” You took a thoughtful look at Mei, “I’ve never heard that one.”

“No, I can really see the resemblance.”

“Interesting.”

“How so?” Kun seemed confused, and you realized what he must be thinking.

“I’m her aunt, by the way,” you informed him bluntly, not missing the relief that flashed across his face for a moment. “Did my brother not mention that?”

Kun was grinning again, and you had to force yourself to actually listen to what he was saying instead of just watching him talk, which you swore you could’ve done all day.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t met her mother, and when I saw the memo saying that a Seo Y/N was picking Mei up today instead of John, I just kind of assumed… but I’m glad that—that we got this cleared up.”

“Me too,” you blurted out before you could stop yourself, feeling warmth rush to your face when he offered you a much softer but equally dashing smile.

A beat of silence passed before you realized that you should probably leave as there was no real reason for you to stay here any longer, “We should be going, thank you again, Kun.”

“Oh, of course,” he nodded to you, following you the couple steps to the front door, giving the two of you one final smile and wave as you left.

* * *

It was borderline pathetic that it was nearly three hours later, and you were still thinking about Kun. Mei was currently coloring on the floor of your living room, occasionally asking for clarification of what color she was using or to proudly show off the picture she’d finished. Johnny said he’d be over to pick her up in a few minutes, so you were in the home stretch of your aunt responsibilities for the day.

As your thoughts wandered back to Kun, you checked all your bases: cute? check; hot? check; attractive? check; likes kids? check; single? questionably check. You didn’t see a ring, but that didn’t mean much, he could easily be in a relationship. And, how could he _not_ be?

Before you could let yourself get your hopes up too far or absolutely crushed to smithereens, there was a knock at your front door.

“Oh, that must be your dad,” you stood up, gesturing for Mei to start putting away her coloring supplies as you went to open the door.

Standing there was indeed your brother, sheepish smile on his face and cash in hand. Despite your earlier words, you still accepted the money, you could always use some spare cash. Johnny kneeled down for Mei to run at him and wrap her arms around his neck, letting out an enthusiastic “Daddy!” as she half-tackled him.

“Hi, princess,” he picked her up, pecking her temple, then yours. “Thanks, Y/N.”

“Yeah, no problem, John.”

Opening your front door for them, you gave your family a final goodbye before they disappeared back down the street.

* * *

You’re officially pathetic.

It’s only the next day, and you found yourself dialing your brother’s number. When he picked up, before he could say anything, you asked, “Can I pick Mei up today?”

“Uh, why?” Was his response. A logical response.

Your reason, however, wasn’t. You couldn’t tell your brother that you really wanted to see her cute teacher whose smile gave you warm fuzzies and face hadn’t left your thoughts for more than an hour at a time since you’d met him. Instead, you gave out the lame excuse of, “I haven’t been a helpful enough sister or aunt, John. I want to make sure Mei has more than just you in her life.”

“She has Yeohwa, and Mom and Dad too, Y/N,” Johnny sounded suspicious, for good reason. He must have ultimately decided to give you the benefit of the doubt, judging by the genuine and bright change of tone in his voice, “But thank you. That really means a lot to me and would be a big help.”

“So how often would you need me to pick her up?”

“Whenever you can, really. Yeohwa wants to change the arrangement so that she just gets Mei on the weekends instead of during the week, and I don’t have the time for this headache right now. Just give me a few hours heads-up if you can’t get her and I’ll get off work. This is really such a big help, Y/N, I can’t thank you enough. Now I can get in more hours at work and my boss isn’t going to be on the verge of firing me all the time. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re literally like an angel or something.”

Hearing the sincere gratefulness in your brother’s voice made you feel guilty for a moment. But at the end of the day, everybody wins: Yeohwa gets her way, Johnny gets to put in more hours at work, Mei gets another consistent person in her life, and you get to see Kun at most five days a week.

* * *

You were at the preschool early today, waiting in the space by the front desk with all the other parents. One woman approached you with an easy smile, “Hi, I’m Jo Haseul.”

“I’m Seo Y/N,” you accepted her friendly handshake.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you here before. Is your child in the two-year-old class as well?”

“Oh I’m not— I’m here to pick up my niece, Seo Mei. But yes, she is in the two-year-old class.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she laughed it off, right as the door of the two-year-old classroom opened. One girl was at the front of the pack, making a beeline for Haseul.

“There’s my Yeojin,” the mom said affectionately right before the girl reached her legs, crashing into them.

Your attention was back on the doorway and children streaming out of it. Your first goal was to locate your niece, then to locate Kun. Thankfully, Mei wasn’t far behind Yeojin, stopping in front of you and looking up at you expectantly, “Hi.”

“Hi, Mei,” you grinned, taking her bumblebee backpack onto your own shoulder before bending down to pick her up. “Learn anything new today?”

She shrugged noncommittally, seeming a lot more awake than when you picked her up yesterday. Your eyes scanned the thinning crowd as the parents who had already acquired their children started filtering out. You spotted Kun talking to a couple, his expressions as interesting and animated as ever, gesturing and smiling and laughing along as he spoke.

“Sin-gle,” a sing-song voice by your ear startled you from the trance you didn’t even realize you were in. Haseul was apparently still there, a wide grin on her face as she looked at you.

“Hm?”

“Mr. Qian… Kun. He’s single.”

Either you were being way too obvious or she was a mind reader. You could feel your cheeks flushing as you turned yourself to fully face her and away from him, “Oh.”

Yeojin whined something lowly and tugged at her mom’s hand. Haseul murmured something reassuringly to her toddler before talking to you again, “We’ll be going then. It was nice to meet you, Y/N.”

“You too, Haseul,” you nodded politely to her, watching as they disappeared through the glass doors and down the street.

When you looked back over at Kun, you saw that he was still clearly engaged in his conversation with the family. There was also only one other parent-child pair in the vicinity with you, attending to something at the front desk with the secretary. With a sense of defeat, you started towards the doors, figuring that maybe you could talk to him again on Monday.

“Y/N?” A familiar voice called out your name, and as you stopped to turn and look, the family that Kun had been talking to passed you on their way out.

With a smile, you walked back towards Kun, meeting him halfway as he greeted you with that same stomach-twisting, butterfly-inducing smile, “Hey, I thought that was you. Picking Mei up two days in a row?”

“Oh, uh yeah. My brother needs all the help he can get, really.”

“So does that mean you’ll be getting Mei more frequently?”

“Whenever I can,” you echoed your brother’s words from earlier, absolutely entranced by Kun.

“Nice, uhm—” he interrupted himself with a cough, “ _That’s_ nice, of you to do for your brother, and Mei.”

You knew that you were blushing when you looked down at your feet and gave an uncharacteristically shy, “Thanks.”

Mei was still in your arms and started wriggling around just then. You set her down, making sure she took your hand before you looked back to Kun apologetically, “Looks like we’re going.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve got a classroom to clean up. See you later, then, Y/N. Bye, Mei.”

“Bye, Mr. Qian,” she waved to him before eagerly skipping towards the doors.

* * *

It’s a couple more weeks of interactions just like that later that found you once again at the preschool. You were talking to Haseul again, who had kind of become your preschool-lobby-waiting-friend that you would chat with as you waited for your respective girls. Today she was telling you about some infuriating client she had at her graphic design job, which made you giggle at how worked up she was getting over this man.

“Anyway, enough about me,” she dismissed herself, focusing in you. “What’s been going on with you, Y/N? How’s, you know… college?”

“Oh, right, it’s been forever since you’ve been there, right?” You teased her, flinching back as she playfully pretended to swing at you.

“Are you this disrespectful to your older brother?”

“Even worse.”

Right as she scoffed, the door was opened, allowing the regular stream of children to flow out to their parents. Mei was usually right behind Yeojin, as they had become friends, but she was nowhere to be seen as Haseul’s daughter found her. You peered around with mounting concern, not spotting her amongst the knee-level throng of children.

“Y/N,” Kun’s voice called to you, and you spotted him by the doorway of the classroom, Mei in his arms.

At first you thought she was asleep, but you realized that her face was buried in his chest because she was crying, her tears leaving small wet patches on his shirt. You cooed gently to her as you took her into your arms, stroking her hair and letting her cry on you, “What happened, Mei?”

“My leg,” she whined quietly, pointing to her left knee, where there was a distinct red mark along it, mostly covered up by what looked to be nearly a whole box of Hello Kitty bandaids.

“Aw, did you scrape your knee, little bean?” You sighed in relief, it wasn’t super serious.

“It happened right before school ended,” Kun explained, easily snapping your focus back to him. “She tripped on a toy that hadn’t been put away and got a real nasty case of carpet burn. I had to patch her up before bringing her out. Sorry if I worried you at all.”

“Oh no, it’s fine,” you reassured him before turning to your still-pouting niece. “How are you feeling, Mei?”

“It hurts, Aunt Y/N.”

“Want me to kiss it better?”

“Yes.”

Obliging, you craned your neck to be able to lay a feather-light peck to one of the many Hello Kitty faces on her knee. She immediately perked up, seeming completely normal as you went to set her down again. Now satisfied with your niece’s mental and physical state, you could return your gaze to Kun. He had a fond smile on his face as he looked at you and Mei.

“Thanks, Kun,” you said gratefully to him, and his eyes met yours, a soft brown that took away your breath in the most delightful way.

He seemed ready to argue your thanks, but then his face lit up, as if he’d suddenly gotten an idea, “It’s probably nothing, but I just want to be sure. Would you mind if I gave you my number, and you let me know if it gets worse at all?”

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

You were in such a rush to get your phone out that you nearly dropped it. When you had it opened to a new Contact, you earnestly typed in the numbers as he recited them to you. You repeated the full number to him to double check that it was correct, and to also prolong your interaction.

“Yeah, that’s it,” he confirmed with a nod and that same bright smile.

“Okay, cool. Bye, Kun.”

Your face was absolutely on fire when you turned away from him. You’re surprised when you see that Haseul was still there, holding Yeojin’s hand as she seemed to be waiting for you.

“That was painful to watch,” she snickered, earning a gentle elbow in the side from you as you went to hurry out of the building.

“Why are you even still here?” You muttered, desperately trying to rehydrate your desert-dry mouth.

“I stayed to schedule a meeting with the principal and figured I’d wait for you.”

“Just my luck.”

“Anyway,” she slowed down at the parking lot, still with a knowing smirk on her lips. “We’ll see you later, Y/N, Mei. Yeojinnie, can you say bye to Ms. Y/N and Mei?”

Yeojin gave you both very enthusiastic goodbye hugs before obediently climbing into her carseat in the back of her mother’s sedan. You took off down the sidewalks with Mei, your phone with Kun’s number in it practically burning a hole in your pocket.

* * *

It had been two more weeks, and you never ended up contacting Kun. Mei hadn’t gotten any worse after you took her home, which is what he had asked you to contact him about. Right? You didn’t want to have misread the situation and talk to him for some other reason that might be seen as a bother to him. Then by the time you’d realized that was stupid, it was too late to do anything about the number in your phone. At this point it’d just be awkward and weird. You’d seen Kun again since then, and neither of you mentioned it.

A few days ago, your brother had excitedly informed you that he’d gotten a different shift at work and would be able to get Mei pretty much every day from then on. You’d been disappointed that this meant you’d probably see Kun less than once a month now, wondering if you should text him or let him know.

You didn’t.

But today you were accompanying your brother to pick her up. You weren’t back by your own request, you were back by Mei’s, apparently, as Johnny had informed you over the phone that morning. The fact that your niece missed you made you warm and fuzzy on the inside, almost as much as when you finally saw Kun’s smile again. It was directed right at you as he followed Mei over to you from the classroom.

“Y/N, hi, you’re back,” his eyes were bright as he greeted you, and you could feel your embarrassingly wide grin spread across your lips at seeing him again.

“Yeah, I am. Back by request,” you looked down at Mei pointedly, and she only smiled back up at you, eyes forming tiny crescents on her little face.

“Hi Aunt Y/N! I missed you!” She passed off her bumblebee backpack to her dad before holding up her arms expectantly.

“I missed you too, little bean,” you were about to pick her up when Johnny’s hands swooped in out of nowhere and plucked her up instead.

“Aah! Got you!” He growled teasingly, making his daughter giggle. “You didn’t even say hi to your own dad?”

“Hi Daddy!”

Johnny looked at you knowingly as he said, “Let’s wait for Aunt Y/N over here, princess.”

You could hear Mei’s protests as your brother carried her away from you and Kun. With this new situation, a heat spread across your cheeks, neck, and ears. You’d never actually been alone with Kun, Mei was always there, and sometimes Haseul and Yeojin as well. Now that you were, you didn’t know what to say.

Kun spoke up, rubbing at his neck awkwardly, “Mei drew you and her together today, actually.”

“Really?” You replied with mild interest, unable to even look him in the eyes.

“It’s cute, you should ask to see it.”

You were desperately trying to think of something else to keep the conversation going when he cleared his throat hesitantly, “Uhm, ah, I’ve still got some arts and crafts to clean up. Bye, Y/N.”

“See you, Kun,” you mumbled, left there still dumbfounded.

Finally, you unrooted yourself from that spot and hurried over to where your brother and niece were waiting. Mei immediately grabbed one of your hands, then Johnny’s, and tugged you both out the door. As you walked on the sidewalk with Mei between you, neither you nor your brother had said a word. He had a shit-eating grin on his face when he eventually did speak up, though.

“I get it,” your brother smirked, letting go of Mei’s hand to cover her ears with his much bigger hands. “You’ve been using my daughter to get dick.”

“Johnny!” You nearly screeched, smacking his arm. “Oh my—”

“I’m not mad! Get it, Y/N!”

“I’m going to actually punch you in the face right now if you don’t shut up.”

“I’ll shut up if you go back in there and get his number.”

You rolled your eyes with a groan, “I _have_ it.”

“Have you gone on a date yet?”

“Well, no.”

“Have you even called him?”

“Uhm—”

“Texted him?”

“John—”

“Y/N, you’re more pathetic than me.”

“Hey now—” You went to argue, getting cut off by him again.

“Call. Him.”

“No.”

“ _Y/N_ ,” he said firmly, sounding almost as if he was chastising you.

“ _John_ ,” you mimicked him, well aware of how childish you were being.

“Alright, don’t come complaining to me when you die alone,” he relented before he took his hands back off his daughter’s ears and swung her up onto his hip, as you were walking into a more densely paced area of the city sidewalks,

Your mind was still on what Kun had told you, “Hey, Mei, Mr. Qian told me you drew something today. Could I see it?”

“Yeah,” she pointed to the backpack on her dad’s back, which Johnny willingly shook off to hand to you.

Opening the small bag, there wasn’t much in it aside from her lunch box, a couple of crayons, and a single piece of paper that had been messily folded. You pulled it out, unfolding it to look at the picture she’d drawn. Kun was right, it was a drawing of you and Mei. However, he had neglected to mention that there was another figure there, beside your own stick figure visage. And it was wearing an outfit very similar to the one Kun had been wearing today. And all around the three stick figures was an array of hearts of varying sizes and colors.

“Mei, what’s this?” You asked lightly, trying to conceal your concern with a laugh.

Johnny genuinely seemed to find this funny, practically howling, “Even Mei knows!”

* * *

That night, you were sitting on your couch after saying goodbye to Johnny and Mei, phone in hand and blank stare focused on Kun’s contact. Mei had gifted you the drawing of you, her, and Kun. The paper was now sitting on the table in front of you as you sat motionless with a million thoughts swirling around in your head.

_Fuck it._

You pressed the call button, heart thudding too loudly in your ears for you to even hear yourself think. It rang once, twice, three, four times before you were about to hang up and hide in a hole. But then he picked up.

“Hello?” Kun answered with a slight air of question in it.

Realizing that he didn’t have your number, you sputtered out, “Hi, Kun. This is Y/N, uhm, Mei’s aunt.”

As if this was about Mei at all, you scoffed silently to yourself.

His voice was bright as he replied, “Oh hi Y/N! What’s up?”

You paused, not thinking this far ahead. Why _were_ you even calling him?

“Ah, uh—Mei showed me her drawing. You were right, it’s cute,” your voice squeaked when you said ‘cute,’ and you were so close to melting into a puddle on your own couch, thankful that he couldn’t see your cherry red and burning ears.

“Mhm,” he hummed in agreement. “Hold on a second, Y/N.”

You could hear him talking to someone in the background as he was presumably holding his hand over the mic of his phone. Was he talking to his partner, maybe? It was around dinnertime, they could be calling him to go eat, and you were holding him up. Your mind descended into panic and your stomach suddenly dropped as you think that he was just being polite and trying to get the conversation over and you completely misread the situation, and you decided that hanging up and never showing your face at the preschool again would just be best.

You were just about to do so when Kun returned to the phone, “Sorry, my roommate was asking me where the colander was. Dumbass didn’t realize it was in the sink, in plain sight.”

You’d always seen Kun around kids, so to hear his voice laced with a playful disdain and hear him curse caught you off-guard for a second. And it might have made him even hotter to you. Thankfully, he seemed to take your silence as his cue to continue.

“Anyway, I’m really glad you called—”

“Really?” You didn’t mean to cut him off, but you did.

“Yeah, I thought I’d scared you off, honestly,” Kun let out what sounded almost like a nervous and breathy laugh.

Was he implying what you thought he was?

“No, no, I scared myself off,” you played along, wanting to see if this was going where you so desperately hoped it was.

“Yah!” Kun suddenly yelled out, and you had to hold your phone away from your ear for a moment, “Sorry, sorry, give me a second.”

In the background, you could just manage to hear Kun talking to—or rather, yelling at—who you assumed to be his roommate, “Wong Kunhang! How the hell do you manage to _burn water_?”

You couldn’t help but laugh, trying to muffle it behind your hand, but Kun seemed to hear you.

“Even Y/N thinks you’re stupid,” he pointed out, and you could hear ‘Kunhang’ whine in response. “Clean up, then _I’ll_ make the pasta, okay?”

The fact that he could cook just made him even more attractive to you, which you didn’t think was possible. How could such a wonderful man exist, _and_ be talking to you right now?

His roommate mumbled something in agreement, then Kun’s voice is back clearly in your ear again, “I’m really sorry, I’m going to have to go soon.”

“That’s okay, sounds like he needs you more than I do right now.”

“I swear, it’s like I deal with two-year-olds all day and then I come home and I’m living with a giant one.”

You chuckled at this, still sad to have to stop talking to Kun. It seemed like it was going somewhere, until ‘Kunhang’ burned the water by some miracle. Divine intervention, perhaps?

“Anyway, I’m going to try this again,” he took a deep breath before finally saying what you thought would never come. “I’m really glad that you called, Y/N. I really like talking to you, and since we haven’t been able to see each other because you’re not picking Mei up as much, I wanted to ask you if you’d like to get dinner together sometime. A date, a date is what I’m asking.”

It took all your willpower to not just _scream_. However, you did take a very awkwardly long amount of time to respond.

“Y/N?”

“Yes! Ah, uhm, uh—yes, I’d love that,” you couldn’t even be embarrassed at your cringeworthy mess of a reply in that moment, too overjoyed at the fact that Qian Kun had actually just asked you on a date.

“Fantastic,” Kun breathed out, and just imagining the grin on his face was enough to bring the butterflies back to your stomach.

You could barely formulate an appropriate reply to him, “Yeah…”

“Okay, cool. So I’ve got to go now, but I’ll text you now that I have your number, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Alright. Yeah, I’m hanging up now. Bye.”

“Bye.”

After he hung up, you gently set your phone onto your coffee table before a guttural and nearly inhuman screech finally erupted from within you, your chest feeling light and your heart soaring as you replayed his words over and over in your head.

_“A date, a date is what I’m asking.”_

* * *

“Hey, Mei!” You held your hands out expectantly for your niece to practically launch herself into as you stood in the lobby of the preschool. Letting out a playful grunt of exertion, you caught her and settled her onto your hip, kissing her forehead.

“Hi Aunt Y/N!” She smiled brightly, pecking your cheek in reciprocation.

“Y/N, do you and Mei want to come to the park with us?” Haseul offered from beside you, holding her daughter’s hand.

“We’re going to have to say no for today, but thank you, Haseul.” Despite speaking to her, your eyes had strayed over to the figure leaning patiently against the doorframe of his classroom.

“Ah, got it,” she grinned in understanding. “See you, Y/N. Bye, Mei.”

“Bye Ms. Haseul! Bye Yeojinnie!” Mei waved enthusiastically to the pair before they left.

Once the lobby had mostly cleared out, you made your way over to Kun, a smile spreading across your lips as he pecked your other cheek in greeting, “Hi.”

“Hi,” you repeated, readjusting your hold on Mei. “Ready to go?”

“I’ve still got a couple things to clean up, sorry,” Kun admitted, to which you nodded.

“Here, Mei,” you set her down on the floor, then gestured over to where a few toys were still strewn around. “Let’s help Mr. Qian pick up, okay? Can you go put those toys away for him?”

She nodded dutifully, toddling over to the assigned toys. You started closing up the paint bottles left on the tables while Kun wiped everything down with disinfectant wipes. Soon, the three of you had the classroom looking spotless again, and Mei was fired up to go.

You took her bumblebee backpack on your shoulder this time as she made a beeline for the front door, pushing against it uselessly. Kun chuckled, gently opening it for her to dart outside.

“Mei!” You called after her, relieved when she stopped and waited for the two of you expectantly. Knowing that she couldn’t quite brave the sidewalks of the city on her own two feet yet, you gestured for her, “C’mere.”

You were about to lean down to pick her up when Kun stopped you. Watching your boyfriend with an eyebrow raised, a happy grin came to your face as he deftly lifted her up and onto his shoulders. Keeping one hand holding her much smaller one, he held his other out for you, and you gratefully entwined your fingers with his. A warm contentment blossomed out from your heart throughout your whole body as you started down the sidewalks with him.


End file.
